Rummy remains one of the most famous card games in the United States, although it has been replaced by Gin Rummy and Oklahoma Gold in many areas. Rummy is better than Gin Rummy when there are more than two players. One pleasant feature of the game is that it is very simple to play and there are many variations.
Rank of Cards
K (high), Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A. (In many forms of Rummy, the ace card can be ranked high or low.)
Dealing
The dealer deals one card at a time, face down, starting with the player on the left. When two people play, each person gets 10 cards. When three or four people play, each person gets seven cards; when five or six people play, each person gets six cards. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table to form the stock.
The top card of the stock is turned face up and becomes the face up card. It is placed next to the stock to start the discard pile.
When two people play, the winner of each hand deals the next hand. When more than two people are playing, the right to deal passes to the next player on the left.
Objective of the Game
Each player tries to form a pair of three or four cards of the same suit, or a run of three or more cards of the same suit.
Gameplay
Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer, a player either draws the top card of the main pile or takes the top card of the discard pile and adds it to their hand. A player can also place any combination card (pair) face up on the table. If a player does not want to put down a combination card, he can discard a card face up onto the discard pile. If a player has already drawn a card from the discard pile, he cannot discard the same card during his turn.
Discarding Cards
A player can add one or more cards from their hand to any pair of cards already shown on the table. So if a three is shown, they can add a fourth three; if a 10, 9, 8 is shown, they can add a J, Q, J, 7 or a 7, 6.
Outs
When a player has played all their cards, they win.
Players may put down their remaining cards in their last turn without discarding them if they all match. This ends the game and there are no further games.
If the last card has been drawn and no player is out, the next player on their turn may take the top of the discard pile, or may flip the discard pile to form a new pile (without shuffling) and draw the top card. The game then continues.
How to Score
Each player pays the winner the point value of the remaining cards in their hand, whether or not they form a matching set. Each face card counts as 10, each ace counts as 1, and each other card counts as its point value.
When a player has played all of their cards at once, without having previously put down or discarded any cards, they are “playing rummy”. In this case, each other player pays double – twice the amount that the other players would have paid. More details at rummybo.com